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THE 



Aet or Soul -Winning. 



(Specially Adapted for Personal Workers.) 



BY 

. W. MAHOOD, EVANGELIST, 

Author of "The Missing Wheel Found," and joint-author of 
"The Young People's History of Methodism." 



"And he brought him to Jesus. 



CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & PYE. 
NEW YOKK: EATON & MAINS. 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

NOV, 25 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLmSS CU XXa No.j 

COPY J. 










Copyright, 1901, 

BY 

Jennings <fe Pye. 



PKEFACE. 

Nevek was there such great need for a mighty, 
Pentecostal revival in all our Churches; and the 
key to such a revival is earnest personal work. 
But the membership of the Churches are not pre- 
pared to enter upon this work. Multitudes know 
nothing of a personal Pentecost. Many are ut- 
terly indifferent. They do not realize their oppor- 
tunity and responsibility before God. If they did, 
the revival would come at once. 

With the hope that many professing Christians 
may be awakened to duty, and hear God's call to 
personal work in soul-winning, this little volume 
is written. 

Let the pastor see that a copy is put into every 
home one month previous to the time set for 
special revival-meetings. Let him secure a pledge 
from the people to read the study for each day, 



4 Preface. 

commit the memory verses, and meditate upon the 
Scripture suggested. 

Once each week, either at a special meeting 
appointed for this purpose, at the week-night 
prayer-meeting, or at the young people's devotional 
meeting Sunday evening, let the studies for the 
week be reviewed and the memory verses recited. 
Short talks may also be given on each topic by 
persons previously selected. 

When the entire Church membership shall be- 
gin to think and speak upon these vital themes; 
when the spirit of grace and supplication shall take 
the place of formality and worldly desire; when 
the Holy Ghost of Pentecost shall come upon the 
waiting, praying Church, then the times of refresh- 
ing will be sure to come from the presence of the 
Lord, and the perishing multitudes will be saved. 
Sioux City, Iowa. 



CONTENTS. 

FIRST WEEK-THE SOUL-WINNER'S MOTIVE. 
"THE LOVE OF CHRIST." 

PAGE 

Study I Foreword and Appeal 9 

Study II The Lord's Command 12 

Study III By Personal Effort 15 

Study IY Trophies of Personal Effort 18 

Study Y The Worth of a Soul 21 

Study VI The Death of a Soul 24 

Study YII The Supreme Motive 27 



SECOND WEEK-THE SOUL-WINNER'S LIFE. 

"YIELD YOURSELVES TO GOD." 

Study VIII A Definite Experience 33 

Study IX A Complete Surrender 36 

Study X ,The Spirit's Witness 39 

Study XI Every Weight 42 

Study XII Prayer 45 

Study XIII Faith 48 

Study XIY Self-Sacrifice 51 

5 



6 Contents. 

third week-the soul-winner's equipment. 

"COMPLETELY FURNISHED." 

PAGE 

Study XV Knowledge of the Scripture 57 

Study XVI Tact 60 

Study XVII Earnestness 63 

Study XVIII Perseverance 66 

Study XIX Tenderness 69 

Study XX Burden for Souls 72 

Study XXI A Personal Pentecost 75 



FOURTH WEEK-THE SOUL- WINNER'S METHODS. 

"BY ALL MEANS." 

Study XXII Direct Approach 81 

Study XXIII Correspondence 85 

Study XXIV Tracts and Books 88 

Study XXV The Prayer List 91 

Study XXVI Work Among Students 93 

Study XXVII Meeting Objections 96 

Study XXVIII No Effort in Vain 100 



THE SOUL -WINNER'S MOTIVE. 



"FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST." 



- 



STUDY I. 
FOBEWOBD AND APPEAL. 

Memory Verse: "And they that are wise shall shine as 
the brightness of the firmament ; and they that 
turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever 
and ever." — (Dan. xii, 3.) 

Scripture for Meditation: Matt, vi, 19-23; Rev. iii, 
14-22. 

Feed B was a medical student. He was 

stricken with that dreaded scourge, consumption. 
The physicians advised a trip to the mountains. 
During the first few months among the Eockies he 
improved rapidly, and hope and ambition flamed 
anew; but it was only a brief respite from suffer- 
ing before the final collapse. Lying in a Denver 
hospital, he was visited by some consecrated young 
people, who sang and prayed with him. He yielded 
himself to Christ, and the peace of God filled his 

heart. 

9 



10 The Akt of Soul- Winning. 

They brought him home to a little Iowa city 
to die. The day after his arrival the pastor was 
summoned to his bedside, when the young man re- 
lated the circumstances of his conversion. The 
pastor said, "Then you are not afraid to die?" 
"No," said he, "not afraid, but not ready." 

When asked why he was not ready, he replied: 
"I have done nothing for my Master. I have won 
no souls for him. Could I have six months more 
to live that I might bring some souls to Jesus, 
and thus not go into his presence empty-handed, 
I would be satisfied to die. I am not afraid to die, 
but not ready" Just then the door of the room 
opened, and the dying boy's father, an old, white- 
haired man who had been absent from home and 
had not seen his son since his return, came in. 
The old man was not a Christian. Then occurred 
a pathetic scene. The young man threw his arms 
about his father's neck, and drew him down upon 
his knees at the bedside, urged him to give him- 
self to God, and then, with shortening breath, ut- 



The Soul- Winder's Motive. 11 

tered such a prayer of intercession as is seldom 
heard. The old man sobbed aloud, yielded to 
Christ, declared his faith, and the dying boy had 
won one soul for his Master. In a few hours he 
had gone into the presence of the King; but not 
empty-handed. 

ye to whom God has given the strength and 
vigor of manhood and womanhood, and who have 
pledged your allegiance to the Christ of Calvary, 
are you winning any souls for your Master? Or 
are you going into his presence empty-handed? 
What if in the judgment-day it shall be seen that 
some souls who might have been saved have been 
lost through your neglect? What if it shall then 
be seen that the crown of many stars which you 
might have won is given to another? And what, 
if in the great day of his appearing you shall be 
found, having gathered no sheaves and empty- 
handed? 



STUDY H. 
THE LOKD'S COMMAND. 

Memory Verse : " Go ye into all the world and preach the 

gospel to every creature." — (Mark xvi, 15.) 
Scripture for Meditation: Ezek. xxxiii, 1-11. 

By the Master's final words to his disciples the 
obligation is laid upon every Christian to be a soul- 
winner. "Ye shall be my witnesses," is the risen 
Lord's message to all his followers. No one is 
excused. "Follow me/' said Christ, "and I will 
make you fishers of men." And when his face was 
set toward Calvary, he said to the Father, "As 
thou hast sent me into the world, even so have 
I also sent them into the world." By the mouth 
of the prophet Ezekiel, God distinctly says that, 
if we neglect "to warn the wicked from his way, 
that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his 

blood will I require at thine hand." We are all 

12 



The Soul-Winner's Motive. 13 

sent, and if we shrink or excuse ourselves from our 
great mission we shall come into condemnation. 

The unsaved multitudes know that every Chris- 
tian should be an ambassador for Christ, and when 
we fail to do our duty we are condemned in their 
eyes as well as before God. A writer in the Ep- 
worth Era says: 

"A college professor who was noted among his 
fellow-teachers for his habit of addressing young 
men upon their personal relations to Christ, was 
asked by one of his fellow-professors, 'Do they not 
resent your appeals as an impertinence?' He re- 
plied : 'No ! Nothing is of such interest to any man 
as his own soul and its condition. He will never 
resent words of Avarning or comfort if they are 
prompted by genuine feeling. When I was a 
young man, I felt as you do. My wife's cousin, 
a young fellow not yet of age, lived in our house 
for six months. My dread of meddling was such 
that I never asked him to be present at family 
worship, or spoke to him on the subject of religion. 



14 The Art of Soul-Winning. 

He fell into the company of a wild set, and was 
rapidly going to the bad. When I reasoned with 
him I spoke of Christ. "Do you call yourself a 
Christian?" he asked, assuming an astonished look. 
"I hope so," I replied. "But you are not. If you 
were, he must be your Best Friend. Yet I have 
lived in your house for six months, and you have 
never once named his name to me; no, he is noth- 
ing to you!" I have never forgotten the rebuke/" 



STUDY m. 
BY PERSONAL EFFORT. 

Memory Verse: "And he brought him to Jesus. "— (John 

i,42.) 
Scripture for Meditation: John i, 35-45. 

Have you ever noticed that much of the work 
which the Master and his disciples did was "per- 
sonal work?" Some of our Lord's greatest ser- 
mons were preached to one person. The apostles 
were all won individually. Turn to your Bible 
now, and read the account of the visit of Nico- 
demus to Christ, and of the meeting with the 
woman of Samaria at the well. If you take the 
time to follow this theme through the Gospels and 
through the Acts of the Apostles, you will be sure 
to see that the work of winning souls for Christ 
by personal effort is the work of every Christian. 

And a conviction of this is the greatest need 
15 



16 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

of the Church to-day. It is the key to the twen- 
tieth-century revival. The world would be evan- 
gelized in this generation did each professing Chris- 
tian win only one soul each year for Christ; and 
the great social and labor problems of the day 
would be speedily solved were the great Christian 
Church actively engaged in leading men and women 
to Jesus of Nazareth. Mightier than the influence 
of great sermons and fine music and splendid ritual 
is the influence of a life consecrated to personal 
effort in seeking the lost. 

That remarkable soul-winner, Dr. J. 0. Peck, 
now translated, said: "So great is my convic- 
tion of the value of personal effort, as the re- 
sult of a lifework of winning souls, that I can 
not emphasize the method too strongly. If it were 
revealed to me from heaven by the archangel 
Gabriel that God had given me the certainty of 
ten years of life, and that as a condition of my 
eternal salvation I must win a thousand souls to 
Christ in that time; and if it were further con- 



The Soul-Winner's Motive. 17 

ditioned to this, that I might preach every day 
for the ten years, but might not personally appeal 
to the unconverted outside the pulpit; or that I 
might not enter the pulpit during these ten years, 
but might exclusively appeal to individuals, I 
would not hesitate one moment to make the choice 
of personal effort as the sole means to be used in 
securing the conversion of one thousand souls 
necessary to my own salvation." 

Dr. Theodore Cuyler once said concerning the 
three thousand souls he had received into Church 
fellowship during his ministry, "I have handled 
every stone." 



STUDY IV. 

TKOPHIES OF PEESONAL EPFOKT. 

Memory Verse: "And he that is wise winneth souls. " — 

(Prov. xi, 30, R. V.) 
Scripture for Meditation: 2 Cor. v, 14-21. 

Is it not a suggestive fact that nearly all those 
men who have shone brightly in the galaxy of 
martyrs, preachers, and reformers in the Chris- 
tian Church through the centuries have been won 
to Christ by the personal effort of some consecrated 
life? Think of some in our own age. 

Dwight L. Moody, when a clerk in a store, was 
visited by his Sunday-school teacher, who put his 
hand upon the young man's shoulder and talked 
to him about Christ; and Mr. Moody says, "I had 
not felt I had a soul till then/' 

Colonel H. H. Hadley, who has kneeled and 

prayed with over thirty-five thousand drunkards, 

18 



The Soul-Winnee's Motive. 19 

declares that one of the agencies which led him 
to Christ was a brief interview with Chaplain (now 
Bishop) McCabe on a railway-train in Ohio just 
after the Civil War. 

Lord Shaftesbury, one of the greatest Christian 
philanthropists of the nineteenth century, was won 
for Christ in early boyhood by the effort of Maria 
Willis, a servant-girl in his father's home. 

The conversion of Diaz, the great Cuban evan- 
gelist, was due to the faithfulness of a consecrated 
young lady of Brooklyn. She found him in a hos- 
pital at the point of death, procured a Spanish 
New Testament, read to him the words of mercy 
and invitation, pointed him to Christ; and he went 
back to his own country, a flaming herald of the 
gospel. 

J. Wilbur Chapman, one of the most success- 
ful pastor-evangelists of this generation, says that 
while in a revival-meeting, when a boy, his Sun- 
day-school teacher touched him on the elbow, and 
said, "Do you not think you had better stand ?" 



20 The Art of Soul-Winning. 

and that one touch, as much as anything else, 
pushed him into the kingdom. 

Joseph F. Berry, whose name is a household 
word in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was led 
to Christ by two young friends who took the young 
printer to his father's barn, and held a prayer- 
meeting with him, which resulted in a glorious 
conversion. 



STUDY V. 
THE WOETH OF A SOUL. 

Memory Verse: " For what is a man profited, if he gain 
the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what 
shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" — (Matt, 
xvi, 26.) 

Scripture for Meditation: Luke xv, 1-10. 

What is a life worth? What is your life worth? 
What is the life of your son or daughter or mother 
or wife worth? What would. you take for a life? 
But if the life of a dear one be worth so much 
to you, what must be its value in God's sight, 
who sees to what depths a soul may plunge and 
to what heights it may rise? It may be a small 
matter to you that in yonder saloon is a man dis- 
sipated and drunken. But what if he were your 
father or brother or husband? It may be a very 
small matter to you that the boy whom you met 

on the street is puffing a cigarette and wears al- 

21 



22 The Art of Soul-Winning. 

ready upon his face the marks of an evil life. But 
what if he were your boy or your brother ? Yet, in 
God's sight, his life is as valuable as if he were 
your boy or your brother; and every soul is of 
infinite worth. 

Jesus Christ set a high estimate upon human 
life when he left his Father's throne and came 
into this sin-cursed world to suffer and die that 
he might redeem us from death. 

The Church of to-day needs a new vision of 
the worth of a soul. We need to stand beside 
Calvary and see the price that was paid there for 
human life. 

John Keble, the poet-preacher of the English 
Church, said that the salvation of one soul is worth 
more than the framing of the Magna Charta of a 
thousand worlds. 

It was meditation upon the words of the mem- 
ory verse of this study that fired the souls of 
Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier with a holy 
enthusiasm to rescue the perishing multitudes. 



The Soul-Wixxer's Motive. 23 

Had their successors and disciples been filled with 
the same enthusiasm, and kept themselves free 
from the machinations of politics, they would have 
long since evangelized the world, and Jesuitism 
would not have been "the scandal of Christianity." 



STUDY VI. 
THE DEATH OF A SOUL. 

Memory Verse : " Let him know, that he which converteth 
the sinner from the error of his way shall save a 
soul from death.' ' — (James v, 20.) 

Scripture for Meditation: Luke xvi, 19-31. 

What is death — the death of a soul? What 
is it to die eternally? In the passage for medita- 
tion our Lord gives us a glimpse into the realms 
of death. Surely the Son of God is not trifling 
here; nor does he speak to confuse. For a moment 
the curtain is drawn, and we see what is actually 
transpiring in the future world. In these days 
there is a disposition in some quarters to make 
light of the future punishment of the wicked. 
Some preachers are dumb upon the awful punish- 
ment of sin, or preach only half a gospel, saying, 

as Bishop Warren puts it, "You must repent, as 

24 



The Soul-Winxer's Motive. 25 

it were; be converted, in a measure; or you will 
go to hell, so to speak." 

But Christ did not speak with any uncertain 
sound about the future punishment of the impeni- 
tent. He is authority. Take your Bible and read 
such passages as Matt, xxv, 41, 46; Matt, viii, 12; 
Luke xvi, 23; John v, 29. 

In the light of these words, we must see that 
the death of a soul means eternal separation from 
God, from mercy, and from heaven. 

And yet how indifferent we are concerning the 
unsaved multitudes all about us who are drifting 
into a hopeless eternity. The Church needs a 
vision like that of the little lad in Olive Schreiner's 
"Story of a South African Farm/' who, waking 
at midnight, sees multitudes drifting over the 
precipice into eternal night, and throws himself on 
his face on the floor, crying out in the agony of 
his burdened heart to God to have mercy. 

Some one tells of a shepherd in the Far West 
who, on a dark, stormy night, found three sheep 



26 The Akt of Soul- Winning. 

missing. Going to the kennel where the faithful 
shepherd-dog lay with her little family, he bade 
her go to find the sheep. An hour afterwards she 
returned with two. When these had been put in 
the fold, he said, "One sheep is yet missing. Go!" 
The faithful dog took one mute look of despair 
at her little family, then was off in the dark and 
the storm. In two hours she had returned with 
the lost sheep, but was torn and bleeding, and, as 
she staggered toward the kennel, fell dead at the 
door. But if a poor, dumb brute, with no im- 
mortal hope, be obedient, even unto death, what 
shall we say of men and women who know the 
destiny of the soul, and whom the King of kings 
has bidden seek the lost, yet are disobedient, in- 
different, and thoughtless as to the dying multi- 
tudes about them? 



STUDY VII. 

THE SUPEEMB MOTIVE. 

Memory Verse: "For the love of Christ constraineth 

us."— <2 Cor. v, 14.) 
Scripture for Meditation: 1 Cor. xiii, R. V. 

But the supreme motive in all our efforts to 
win others should be "the glory of God." Pos- 
sessed of an undying love for him who first loved 
us, we will have an inspiration to seek the lost 
for whom he gave his life. And all our efforts 
shall be, as Paul puts it in his letter to the 
Ephesians, "unto the praise of his glory." 

"The love of Christ doth me constrain 
To seek the wandering souls of men." 

Love never faileth. Love knows no impossi- 
bility. He who works for wages and he who works 

27 



28 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

for love live in two different realms. A lot of men 
were entombed in a coal-mine, and great crowds 
gathered to help clear away the earth and rescue 
the miners. An old, gray-headed man came run- 
ning up, and, seizing a shovel, began working with 
the strength of ten men. Some one asked to re- 
lieve the old man. "Get out of the way," he cried; 
"I have two boys down there." 

Love will triumph; and he whose heart throbs 
with love to Christ will find real joy in rescuing 
from sin those who are the purchase of his blood, 
that his name may he glorified. 

Study his life of self-sacrifice. See again his 
suffering for sinful men. Linger in Gethsemane, 
and behold the agony of Calvary. Then your heart 
will begin to throb with love to him "who first 
loved us." 

Get a new vision of your crucified, but now 
risen, Savior, until the beauty of his matchless life 
charms your heart and you are ready to say : 



The Soul-Winner's Motive. 29 

"Come, and possess me whole, 
Nor hence again remove ; 
But sup with me, and let the feast 
Be everlasting love." 

Then you will possess the highest motive that 
moves human hearts, and personal work in soul- 
winning will become a real delight. 



THE SOUL-WINNER'S LIFE. 



"YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD." 



STUDY VIII. 
A DEFINITE EXPEEIENCE. 

Memory Verse: " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except 
a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of 
God."— (John iii, 3.) 

Scripture for Meditation: John iii, 1-15. 

Ix a prayer-meeting a young lady was asked, 
"What is the first thing we must do if we would 
win others to Christ?" She replied, "We must live 
holy ourselves" She was right. Just as the tele- 
graph wire must be insulated, so must the life of 
him who expects to be the messenger of God be 
insulated from the old life of sin before he can 
hope to carry the loving messages of the gospel 
to other souls. 

This implies a" definite experience of conver- 
sion. He who would engage in this most fascinat- 
ing of all work must have nothing short of an inner 

33 



34 The Art of Soul-Winning. 

consciousness of sins forgiven and of the presence 
of Christ in his life. He must be able to say, like 
Andrew and like Philip of old, "I have found him." 
He must know what it is to have "a new heart" 
and to have peace with God. 

William Butler, the veteran missionary and 
soul-winner, now translated, wrote the author of 
these studies a letter, in which he said: 

"First and foremost, I thank God for a true 
conversion. When I got religion, I got it good and 
thorough. Christ became everything to me. The 
law of sin, or temptation to worldly conformity 
of any kind, was completely eradicated from my 
heart; and from that hour to this the law of Christ 
has fully satisfied my soul, and made me gloriously 
free and independent of the world and its maxims 
and pleasures. And now, after fifty-five years' en- 
joyment of peace with God and humble devotion 
to his service, I bless him that I ever gave him 
my heart and devoted myself to his work. I am 
happy. The consoling comforts of the grace of 



The Soul- Winner's Life. 35 

God are with me by day and by night, and the 
blessed future is radiant with the hope of being 
'numbered with the saints in glory everlasting/ " 
In these days of compromise and doubt we 
need to have as definite an experience of salvation 
as had William Butler. He who would win others 
to a new life must himself possess that life, and 
know it, being able to say with Paul, "I know 
whom I have believed." 



STUDY IX. 

A COMPLETE SUREENDEE. 

Memory Verse: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by 
the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a 
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is 
your reasonable service." — (Rom. xii, 1.) 

Scripture for Meditation: Rom. vi, 1-13. 

John Wesley said, "Give me one hundred 
preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire 
nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether 
they be clergymen or laymen, they alone will shake 
the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven 
upon the earth." 

A life surrendered to God will be an invincible 
life, while the life only partly surrendered will 
know nothing but defeat. Some one says that, 
in the transfer of property, any reservation im- 
plies, also, reserved rights. If a man sells a ten- 
acre lot, and keeps a yard square in the center 

for himself, he has a right of way across what 

36 



The Soul-Winneb's Life. 37 

he has sold to get to his reservation. And if, in 
our surrender, we keep back anything, "that con- 
stitutes the devil's territory, and he will trample 
over all we call consecrated to get to his own." 
Therefore a complete surrender of the life to God 
is absolutely necessary. 

To the rich young man who came to him, Jesus 
said, "One thing thou lackest." He demanded an 
unconditional surrender of every interest of his 
life. But the young man was not willing to make 
the surrender, and went away sorrowful. Of every 
man and woman Jesus asks the same surrender. 
But many now wander off in the darkness of for- 
mality and doubt because they are not willing. 
Three things are implied in such a surrender: 
(1) An acknowledgment of the Divine ownership 
and human stewardship in all temporal affairs; 
(8) A complete submission of the will to God; 
(3) The supremacy of Jesus Christ in the heart 
and life, so that the interests of his kingdom are 
first, always, and everywhere. 



38 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

There is an old story of a monk who, having 
been disobedient to the rules of the monastery, 
was told he must die. They took him out into the 
graveyard, stood him upright in a grave, filled in 
the earth about his feet. Then they asked, "Are 
you dead yet?" He said, "No." The earth was 
then filled in about him to his waist, and the ques- 
tion again asked. He replied, "No." Then they 
filled in the earth until he was covered, all but his 
head, and could scarcely breathe. When asked if 
he would die, he replied, "Yes, I will give up; I 
will die." So may we die to the old life of self 
and sin, and live the new life of entire surrender 
to our risen Lord! 

" If Christ would live and reign in me, 

I must die, I must die. 
Like him I crucified must be, 

I must die, I must die. 
So dead that no desire may rise, 
To pass for good, or great, or wise, 
To any but my Savior's eyes, — 

Let me die, let me die." 



STUDY X. 
THE SPIKITS WITNESS. 

Memory Verse: "The Spirit Himself beareth witness 
with our spirit that we are children of God." — 
(Rom. viii, 16, R. V.) 

Scripture for Meditation: 1 John v, 1-15. 

When the life has been wholly surrendered to 
God, and Christ, the crucified and risen Savior, 
is enthroned in the heart and confessed before 
men, then the blessed assurance of our sonship 
with God will be clear and joyous. No longer shall 
we say, "I hope I am a Christian," or, "I am try- 
ing to be a Christian;" but, like Paul, we shall 
exclaim, "I know whom I have believed." 

The witness of the Spirit will give a holy con- 
fidence to the soul-winner. 

"What we have seen and felt, 
With confidence we tell." 
39 



40 The Art of Soul-Winning. 

Much of the timidity and reluctance shown by 
Christians toward personal work may be traced 
to a refusal or neglect to live the surrendered life 
and have the clear assurance of acceptance with 
God. 

This direct testimony to our adoption is given 
only by the Holy Spirit, and given only to be- 
lievers because they are the sons of God. It is 
God's seal which he places upon his own, and we 
then no longer receive the spirit of bondage unto 
fear; but we receive the spirit of adoption whereby 
we cry, Abba, Father. The voice of God is heard 
in the soul bearing witness to our acceptance, and 
then the fruit of the Spirit speedily follows in 
the life to corroborate the inner voice and "give 
unmistakable confirmation to the testimony which 
was primary and direct/' 

To some, this assurance comes like a sudden 
flash from the sky; to others, like the gentle breath- 
ing of the evening zephyr. But it comes, it surely 
comes; and no soul should be satisfied until it 



The Soul- Winner's Life. 41 

comes; for it is essential to a useful, joyous life. 
Look up now, and with eager expectancy await the 
"blessed assurance." 

" Why should the children of a King 
Go mourning all their days? 
Great Comforter, descend and bring 
The tokens of thy grace. 

Assure my conscience of her part 

In the Redeemer's blood ; 
And bear thy witness with my heart, 

That I am born of God. 

Thou art the earnest of His love, 

The pledge of joys to come ; 
May thy blest wings, celestial Dove, 

Safely convey me home !" 



STUDY XI. 
EVEEY WEIGHT. 

Memory Verse: "Wherefore seeing we also are com- 
passed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let 
us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so 
easily beset us, and let us run with patience the 
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the 
author and finisher of our faith. " — (Heb. xii, 1, 2.) 

Scripture for Meditation: 1 Cor. viii, 9-13; ix, 24-27. 

We hear much about "personal liberty" in these 
days, and, to hear some talk, one would think that 
personal liberty was a gift to be selfishly guarded 
rather than to be sacrificed for the good of others. 
But Paul, the apostle, sacrificed his liberty for the 
sake of others; so did Onesimus, the Christian 
slave. Surely those professing Christians who 
make "personal liberty" their plea for engaging 
in some form of worldly amusement (such as danc- 
ing, card-playing, or theater-going), and those who 

42 



The Soul- Winder's Life. 43 

are given to some filthy habit (such as the use of 
tobacco), have not studied the life of Jesus, or of 
Paul, or of Onesimus. 

If there were no other reasons why these things 
should be renounced, that they injure our influ- 
ence as soul-winners would be sufficient; for who 
ever heard of a man or woman who engaged in 
these forms of questionable amusement becoming 
illustrious as a soul-winner? To say the least, they 
are "weights," and must be laid aside. 

In a revival service, a lady rose, and, with tears 
raining down her face, said: "I have taught a Sun- 
day-school class of sixteen young men for three 
years, and have not seen one of them converted. 
I believe I know why, and now confess my sin. 
Being a teacher in the city schools, I thought I 
must see a Shakespearean play, and went to the 
theater one night. I saw several of my class there, 
and they all seemed to be looking at me as if sur- 
prised. Next day I met some of them, and they 
confessed surprise that I was at the theater. I 



44 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

have been conscious from that time that I had 
lost my influence to win these young men to 
Christ." Within one week after this confession 
was made this lady had won seven of her class for 
the Savior. 

A young lady, once a society belle and fond of 
worldly amusements, consecrated her life to the 
Lord's w T ork. In a rescue mission she was asked 
to speak to a poor wreck of a man who had been 
a gambler. He looked at her suspiciously as he 
asked, "Do you play cards, or dance, or go to the 
theater ?" "No, not now/' she replied. "Well, then 
you may talk to me; but I won't listen to one 
word from you fine folks who are doing on a small 
scale the very things that brought us poor wretches 
to where we are." And the young lady afterwards 
said she had found more real joy in leading that 
lost soul to Christ than she had ever found in the 
pleasures of the world. 

Lay aside every weight; lay aside every weight, 
just now. 



STUDY XII. 
PRAYER. 

Memory Verse : " The effectual fervent prayer of a right- 
eous man availeth much." — (James v, 16.) 

Scripture for Meditation: Gen. xxxii, 24-30. Luke xi, 
1-13. 

Nothing is more essential to the soul-winner 
than prayer. Prayer will generate a spiritual at- 
mosphere in the individual life. The prayers of 
many will generate a spiritual atmosphere in a 
community. In answer to prayer, the Holy Spirit 
will do his office, and produce such pungent con- 
viction of sin that men will cry out, as on the day 
of Pentecost, "Men and brethren, what shall 
we do?" 

In the Life of Mr. Finney it is related that, 

during a revival at Rome, New York, the air 

seemed surcharged with Divine power. A sheriff, 

who had laughed about the meetings, came over 
4 45 



46 The Art of Soul-Winning. 

from Utica. He felt this strange influence when 
he crossed the old canal, a mile west of town. 
When he sat in the hotel dining-room, he had to 
get up and go to the window two or three times 
to divert his attention and keep from weeping. 
After dinner he hurried away, but was afterwards 
converted. 

See what spiritual triumphs and great revivals 
the early Church witnessed; but the secret of it 
all was that "they continued steadfastly in prayers." 
Why is it that to-day many have so little cour- 
age and so little power to win others to Christ? 
They neglect prayer. "They that wait upon the 
Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount 
up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not 
be weary; they shall walk, and not faint." How 
little time we spend daily in prayer! Study the 
life of Paul, and Savonarola, and Catherine of 
Siena, and Martin Luther, and John Knox, and 
see how they all gave themselves continually to 
prayer, and so prevailed. All they who have be- 



The Soul- Winner's Liee. 4? 

come illustrious as great soul-winners have been, 
without exception, men and women mighty in 
prayer. They came to understand that God's store- 
houses^of wisdom, prayer, and grace are inexhaust- 
ible, and with the key of prayer they unlocked 
every door. 

Prayer avails for the salvation of others when 
every other means seems to fail. The disciples 
spent ten days in prayer. Then came Pentecost 
and a revival that brought thousands into the king- 
dom. John Livingstone, with a few friends, spent 
a whole night in prayer, and the next day five 
hundred persons gave themselves to Christ. Two 
sisters agreed to spend the night in prayer in be- 
half of an unconverted brother. That night, al- 
though twenty miles away, the young man tossed 
on his bed in agony of conviction, and next day 
started for home, and found salvation. 

Prayer is omnipotent; and, if we would see the 
kingdom of Christ come speedily in the world, we 
must have a great revival of prevailing prayer. 



STUDY XIII. 
FAITH. 

Memory Verse: " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that 
believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do 
also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; be- 
cause I go unto my Father.' ' — (John xiv, 12.) / 

Scripture for Meditation : Heb. xi. 

Not the mystery of faith, nor the philosophy 
of faith, does the soul-winner need to study; but 
the simplicity, the childlikeness of faith. To be- 
lieve God implicitly is to have victorious faith. 
"I can do all things through Christ which strength- 
ened me/' said Paul; and everywhere in the Bible 
we find the clear teaching that "God and one make 
a majority." To realize this in one's own life is 
to live the victorious life. 

But perhaps we should distinguish between 

trust and saving faith. Trust gives the life to God; 

faith takes from God that which he has promised 

48 



The Soul- Winner's Life. 49 

in his Word. Trust is continuous; faith is a definite 
act. "Faith is the giving substance to things hoped 
for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb. xi, 1.) 
It is true that we walk by faith now; but faith 
has a clear eye. Faith can see the clouds full of 
chariots and horses. Faith can see legions of 
angels marshaling themselves for our defense. 
Faith can see that every promise of God is stead- 
fast, and will surely be fulfilled, and can claim its 
fulfillment. 

" Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, 
And looks to that alone ; 
Laughs at impossibilities, 
And cries, 'It shall be done.' " 

Of Barnabas it is said, "He was a good man, 
and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." The 
fullness of faith will make unbelief and moral dark- 
ness impossible in the soul, and will generate a 
triumphant confidence in God. 

To have faith is to have power; and the little 
child, as well as the grown man, may possess this 



50 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

power, and exercise it in winning souls for Jesus. 
A little girl who had bowed at the altar and given 
her heart to God, pulled the pastor's coat at the 
close of the service, and said, "Will you please pray 
for my mamma?" "Certainly," said the pastor. 
And the next evening the little girl brought her 
mother to the service. When the invitation was / 
given, she took her hand and led her to the altar. 
That little girl's faith won her mother to Christ. 

Faith will give courage for personal work. With 
a strong, unfaltering confidence which takes God 
at his word, we shall not hesitate nor fear to ap- 
proach the unsaved and seek to win them to the 
Savior. 

Faith is nourished by the Word. "Faith eom- 
eth by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." 
If we feed our faith upon the Word, and exercise 
it, then we shall have the faith of those mentioned 
in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and we shall 
prove the promise of the Savior, "All things are 
possible to him that believeth." 



STUDY XIV. 
SELF-SACRIFICE. 

Memory Verse: " For whosoever will save his life, shall 
lose it ; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake, 
shall find it."— (Matt, xvi, 25.) 

Scripture for Meditation : Matt, xvi, 24 ; 2 Cor. iv. 

The words of Christ, "If any man will come 
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his 
cross, and follow me," can not be mistaken. The 
earthly life of Jesus was a supreme example of 
self-sacrifice. All the way from Bethlehem to Cal- 
vary his life was a constant denial of self. The 
early Church followed their Master. They were 
ready to sacrifice all. Men sold their fields and 
houses for the work's sake. They counted noth- 
ing too good for sacrifice, even to life itself; and 
many went gladly to the arena and the fiery stake 

rather than be untrue to their Lord. As long 

51 



52 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

as the early Christian Church maintained this 
spirit, she went from victory to victory. Nothing 
could withstand her progress. And when the fol- 
lowers of Jesus Christ in this twentieth century 
shall again put on the beautiful garments of self- 
sacrifice, the Church will become invincible. 

There is now a great opportunity for men and 
women to sacrifice, in personal liberty, in popu- 
larity, in social standing, and personal comfort, 
for the sake of the perishing multitudes. None are 
too poor, none too old, to do something to win 
souls. 

An aged widow, who had all her money invested 
in a farm in a drouth-stricken part of the West, 
found herself almost penniless. She was compelled 
to find shelter in a Kefuge Home. At first she 
was discouraged and heart-broken; but God put 
upon her heart the multitudes of perishing women 
in India. She tried to occupy her mind piecing a 
quilt. This she sold, and the money was sent to 
India. Then she made another for Africa, then 



The Soul-Winneb's Life. 53 

another for Japan, until now, in six years, she 
has given four hundred dollars to home and foreign 
missions, and has six people at work as her substi- 
tutes in foreign lands. And she says, "I was surely 
called of God to teach that no one is too poor to 
give to missions, or too old to work for God and 
souls." 

A young man, twenty-four years old, working 
on a farm for twenty dollars a month and board, 
has, in nineteen months, sent six substitutes, and 
says, "I pray God to make me a Christian drunkard, 
that I may spend my time and money for him as 
the drunkard does for the devil." And when the 
whole Church shall begin to show the same spirit 
of self-sacrifice in giving time and money, and in 
sacrificing pleasure and comfort and social stand- 
ing for the Lord's work, and for dying multitudes 
about them, then we shall soon see the dawn of 
the millennial day. 



THE SOUL -WINNER'S EQUIPMENT. 

"COMPLETELY FUENISHED." 



STUDY XV. 

KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCKIPTURES. 

Memory Verse: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you 

richly in all wisdom." — (Col. iii, 16.) 
Scripture for Meditation: Heb. iv, 12; 2 Tim. iii, 13-17 ; 

Ps. cxix, 1-11. 

A thorough knowledge of the Word of God is 

essential to success in soul-winning. The Word is 
"the sword of the Spirit/ 3 "the hammer that break- 
eth the rock in pieces/ 5 If we are not skilled in 
the use of the Divine sword and the Divine ham- 
mer, then we can not expect that the Spirit will 
use us. 

In an excellent little book on "How to Obtain 
the Fullness of Power/ 5 Dr. E. A. Torrey says: 

"There can be no fullness of life and service 

if the Bible is neglected. In much that is now 

written on power; also in much that is said in 

conventions, this fact is overlooked. The work of 

57 



58 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

the Holy Spirit is magnified; but the instrument 
through which the Holy Spirit works is largely 
forgotten. The result is transient enthusiasm and 
activity, but no steady continuance and increase 
in power and usefulness. We can not obtain power, 
and we can not maintain power, in our own lives 
and in our work for others, unless there is deep 
and frequent meditation upon the Word of God. 
. . . Of course, it is much easier, and therefore 
much more agreeable to our spiritual laziness, to 
go to a convention or revival-meeting, and claim 
a 'filling with the Holy Spirit/ than it is to peg 
along, day after day, month after month, year after 
year, digging into the Word of God. But a 'filling 
of the Spirit/ that is not maintained by a per- 
sistent study of the Word will soon vanish. . . . 
Evidently Paul knew of no filling with the Spirit 
divorced from deep and constant meditation upon 
the Word." 

The most remarkable movement among young 
men in this generation is the World's Christian 



The Soul- Winner's Equipment. 59 

Student Federation, organized by Mr. John R. Mott. 
Through this movement multitudes of young men 
the world over have been led to keep what is called 
"The Morning Watch/'' by which they rise at least 
half an hour earlier than usual each morning, and 
spend the time in devotional Bible-study and 
prayer. What a mighty impetus would be given to 
Christian work everywhere if all Christian young 
people would form the habit of keeping "The Morn- 
ing Watch !" 

Have a plan for your Bible study, and faith- 
fully follow it. Commit to memory the texts found 
in Study Twenty-seven, and thus be able to use 
skillfully the Sword of the Spirit. 



STUDY XVI. 

TACT. 

Memory Verse : u I am made all things to all men, that I 

might by all means save some." — (1 Cor. ix, 22.) 
Scripture for Meditation: 1 Cor. ix, 19-27. 

The successful business man knows the value 
of tact, and the Christian worker should know the 
value of consecrated tact. A special study of the 
life of Christ to notice his methods of dealing with 
various people, and to see the aptness with which 
he used parable and exhortation, would prove very 
helpful to every soul-winner. The life of Paul 
might also be studied in the same manner with 
profit. He knew how to become all things to all 
men to save some. 

Christ's exhortation to his disciples was, "Be 

ye as wise as serpents/' but how little wisdom many 

seem to have in seeking to win the unsaved to 

60 



The Soul- Winder's Equipment. 61 

Christ! And this, too, when we have the promise, 
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, 
that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth 
not: and it shall be given him." 

"Now if I could tell you," said a pastor to an 
unsaved business man, who had been relating how 
much a friend had helped him in business, "how 
much Christ has helped me, and what he has been 
to me, I believe I could win you to him." 

The value of tact was well illustrated in an 
incident which occurred during Mr. Finney's meet- 
ings in New York City. The big cutlery firm of 
Sheffield, England, had a branch house in New 
York. The manager was a partner of the firm, and 
very worldly. One of his clerks, who had been 
converted in the meetings, invited his employer to 
attend. One evening he was there, and sat just 
across the aisle from Mr. Arthur Tappan. He ap- 
peared affected during the sermon, and Mr. Tap- 
pan kept his eye on him. After the dismissal, Mr. 
Tappan stepped quickly across the aisle, intro- 



62 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

duced himself, and invited him to stay for the after- 
service. The gentleman tried to excuse himself 
and get away, but Mr Tappan caught hold of the 
button on his coat and said, "Now, do stay; I know 
you will enjoy it;" and he was so kind and gentle- 
manly that the cutlery man could not very Veil 
refuse. He staid, and was converted. Afterwards 
he said, "An ounce of weight upon my coat-button 
saved my soul." 

To watch for opportunity, and then to know 
how effectively to make use of the opportunity, is 
all-important in soul-winning. And there is no 
better teacher than the Holy Spirit, of whom it is 
said, "He shall teach you all things, and bring all 
things to your remembrance." 



STUDY XVII. 

EAKNESTNESS. 

Memory Verse : " Whatsoever thy hand flndeth to do, do 

it with thy might."— (Eccl. ix, 10.) 
Scripture for Meditation: Mark ii, 1-12. 

The testimony of Charles H. Spurgeon should 
have weight here. He said: "If a man is to be a 
soul-winner, there must be in him intensity of emo- 
tion as well as sincerity of heart. You may repeat 
the most affectionate exhortations in such a half- 
hearted manner that no one will be moved either 
by love or fear. I believe that for soul-winning 
there is more in this matter of earnestness than in 
almost anything else." 

When we become as much in earnest to rescue 

our friends and dear ones from eternal death as we 

are to save them from physical suffering and death, 

then we shall see the rapid spread of the kingdom 

63 



64 The Art of Soul-Winning. 

of Christ. A man falls overboard from the deck 
of a vessel, and his wife screams: "Stop the boat! 
My God! My husband is drowning!" But no one 
criticises the woman for her passionate outcry, or 
bids her keep still. It was so natural for her to 
cry out for help. And when the Church of Jesus 
Christ becomes thoroughly awake to the worth of 
a soul and the awful danger to which all out of 
Christ are exposed, it will be the most natural thing 
in the world for them to show an undying earnest- 
ness in seeking the lost. Then propriety, and reti- 
cence, and restraint, and rules of rhetoric will be 
thrown to the winds, and a divine passion will pos- 
sess the life. The world may sneer at it as fanati- 
cism, but it is the fanaticism of Pentecost. When 
the crowd saw the intensity of emotion shown by 
the newly-anointed disciples, they exclaimed, 
"These men are full of new wine." Here was 
shown an enthusiasm that leaps over all difficulties 
and rises above every discouragement — the enthu- 
siasm of Pentecost; and every soul-winner must 



The Soul- Winner's Equipment. 65 

have it. Then, like Paul, wishing himself accursed 
that Israel might be saved, or like John Welch, 
wrapped in his plaid, kneeling in the snow, unable 
to sleep, and praying mightily for the souls of men, 
this holy earnestness will not let us rest until we 
see the salvation of the lost. 

It will tell in look, and tone, and manner. It 
may lead us to do things that may shock the sense 
of propriety of the dead, formal Church member, 
such as being obedient to the Master's command, 
"Go ye out into the highways and hedges, and com- 
pel them to come in/' Jeremiah preached repent- 
ance in the streets; and the early Church preached 
everywhere, on the streets, by the river's bank, in 
the market-places, and in prisons. John Living- 
stone stood on a tombstone, and preached with such 
power in the midst of a falling rain that multitudes 
were born in a day. So did John Wesley. that 
the great Church of Jesus Christ might now have 
the enthusiasm of Pentecost! 



STUDY XVIII. 

PERSEVERANCE. 

Memory Verse : " Ye that are the Lord's remembrancers, 

take no rest." — (Isa. lxii, 6, K. V.) 
Scripture for Meditation: Luke xv, 1-10. 

How we are willing to persevere to save our 
friends from physical suffering and death! No 
night is too long to watch, no sacrifice too great 
to make, no burden too heavy to bear, that the life 
of a loved one may be saved. But should we not 
be just as persistent in our efforts to save from 
eternal death those whom we love? 

Perhaps we have no more illustrious example 
of devotion to soul-winning than evidenced in the 
life of Uncle John Vassar. Two incidents, related 
by the Rev. Walter B. Vassar, illustrate the perse- 
verance with which he sought the perishing. 

A young man was noticed to come night after 
66 



The Soul-Winnek's Equipment. 67 

night to revival-meetings, but would slip away be- 
fore one could grasp his hand. Mr. Vassar felt he 
must see this soul, and walked five miles to the 
farm where he lived, arriving as the family was 
about to eat an early dinner, of which he was urged 
to- partake. After being seated, the face of the 
young man not appearing in the family group, Mr. 
Vassar excused himself from the table, and hunted 
through all the farm-buildings where a man might 
possibly be in hiding. At last, when about to con- 
fess himself defeated, he walked to the further end 
of the corn-crib, and there, in an old hogshead, he 
found the fellow lying low. He confessed after- 
ward that he had taken satisfaction in looking 
through the bunghole of the hogshead, in believing 
Uncle John would not find him there. But this 
"winner of souls," knowing his opportunity, leaped 
over by the side of the runaway, and then and there 
turned, as Charles Spurgeon has said, "the hogs- 
head into a Bethel," and won a soul for heaven. 
An Irish woman in a village was told about a 



68 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

strange man calling about her place, and affirmed 
he would not be kindly treated if he knocked at her 
door. Mr. Vassar, not knowing her feelings, came 
there in his visits, but the moment she saw he was 
the man — according to the description of him — she 
slammed the door in his face. He sat at once upon 
her doorstep and began to sing: 

" But drops of grief can ne'er repay 
The debt of love I owe." 

In a few weeks she wanted admission into the 
Protestant Church, and all her experience was, 
"Those drops of grief, those drops of grief; I could 
not get over them." 

See how men persevere to get rich or to gain 
political prestige! See how insurance agents, and 
book agents, and traveling men persevere in their 
efforts to convince men! They seek most favorable 
times, and then often go again and again. And 
shall we who win immortal souls be any less dili- 
gent ? 



STUDY XIX. 
TEKDEENESS. 

Memory Verse: "I am the good Shepherd; the good 
Shepherd giveth his life for the 3heep." — (John x, 
12.) 

Scripture for Meditation: Luke xv, 3-7 ; John x, 1-18. 

What infinite depths of tenderness are revealed 
in these sweet parables of the Lost Sheep and the 
Good Shepherd! The tender, loving heart of the 
Savior goes out in eager compassion and pity for 
the straying. What boundless sympathy is re- 
vealed in the words, "He calleth his own sheep by 
name;" "He goeth after that which is lost;" "When 
he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, re- 
joicing!" The seeker after souls must be like his 
Master. A heart ready to melt at the sight of 
human suffering and human need is necessary to 

successful soul-winning. There are many whose 

. 69 



70 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

hearts are hardened by long years of rebellion 
against God; whose power of will is emasculated by 
long years of neglect; and they will never be saved 
until some earnest Christian worker shall find them, 
whose heart has been touched with the same sorrow 
that Jesus felt when he stood on the Mount\ of 
Olives weeping over Jerusalem. 

J. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, 
tells that when he was a college student he had 
charge of a man with a gangrenous foot. It was 
his duty to dress the man's foot every day. He 
soon learned that his patient was not a Christian, 
and had not been in a church for forty years. Such 
was his hatred of religion that he refused to go 
inside the church at his wife's funeral. Young 
Taylor made up his mind to speak to this man 
about his soul every time he visited him. The man 
cursed him, and refused to allow him to pray. The 
student persisted in presenting Christ until one 
day he said to himself, "It ? s no use," and was leav- 
ing the room. When he reached the door, he 



The Soul-Winnek's Equipment. 71 

turned around and saw the man looking after him 
as if saying, "Why, you are going away to-day with- 
out speaking to me about Christ !" Then the young 
man burst into tears, and returning to the bedside, 
said: "Whether you wish me to or not, I must de- 
liver my soul. Will you let me pray with you?'' 
The man assented, began to weep, was converted. 
Mr. Taylor says, "'God broke my heart, that through 
me he might break this wicked man's heart." 

Ask now that the Holy Spirit may give you a 
tender heart, and make your eyes a fountain of 
tears, that, with the sympathy of Christ, you may 
seek the lost and perishing. 



STUDY XX. 

BUKDEN FOR SOULS. 

Memory Verse: " For I could wish that myself were ac- 
cursed from Christ for my brethren." — (Rom. ix, 3.) 
Scripture for Meditation: Gen. xviii, 16-33. 

How the great heart of the Savior was bur- 
dened for the lost ! See hini standing on Olivet and 
weeping as he said: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
that killest the prophets, and stonest them which 
are sent unto thee, how often would I have gath- 
ered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth 
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" 

Where there is no real soul-burden for sinners, 
there will be no revival. The early Church tra- 
vailed in pain for the souls of dying men. One 
preacher said, "As I entered the pulpit, I could 
scarcely stand erect because of my concern for the 
people and solicitude for souls;" and another said, 

72 



The Soul-Winneb*s Equipment. • 73 

"I spent a whole night in prayer, and what I passed 
through was inexpressible." When we get a 
glimpse of the worth of a soul, and then of the 
death of a soul, and begin to realize that we stand 
between lost men and heaven or hell, then we shall 
have real concern, and the Lord will hear our prayer 
of intercession. 

When Mr. Moody first went to London he 
preached in a Congregational Church, Sunday 
morning. There was no particular stir. That 
evening he spoke to a large audience of men in the 
same place, and scores expressed a desire to become 
Christians. He went to Dublin next day, but was 
recalled by a telegram saying that a great revival 
had broken out. And Mr. Moody accounts for this 
wonderful work of grace which followed by telling 
that, on that Sunday morning, a lady went home 
and told her invalid sister that Mr. Moody from 
America had preached. "I know what that means," 
said the invalid. "We are going to have a great 
revival. I have been praying for months that the 



74 The Art of Soul-Winning. 

Lord would send him here." She would not eat 
any dinner, but spent the day in fasting and prayer. 
The revival began in that invalid's room. 

A gentleman waked his wife up at three o'clock 
in the morning to have her join him in prayer in 
behalf of a neighboring family who were unsaved; 
and at daybreak went to his neighbor's house to 
entreat them to yield to Christ. 

When such concern for the perishing is mani- 
fested by the Church, there is sure to be a gracious 
ingathering. 



STUDY XXI. 
A PEBSONAL PENTECOST. 

Memory Verse: "But ye shall receive power, after that 
the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be 
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all 
Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part 
of the earth."— (Acta i, 8.) 

Scripture for Meditation : Acts ii, 1-4 ; xix, 1-6. 

But, above all, the soul-winner must have a per- 
sonal Pentecost. Christ does not send us alone to 
seek the lost. In the fifteenth and sixteenth chap- 
ters of St. John's Gospel, he definitely promises the 
Comforter. And again, on the day of his ascen- 
sion, he bids his disciples tarry at Jerusalem until 
the Holy Ghost is come. Then as they waited, 
"with one accord in one place," "a sound from 
heaven as of a rushing mighty wind filled all the 
house where they were sitting, . . . and they were 
all filled with the Holy Ghost." Since that day 

the one supreme qualification for Christ's witnesses 

75 



76 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

is the enduement with the Holy Ghost. He will give 
a better knowledge of the Scriptures; he will re- 
enforce tact and earnestness and perseverance; he 
will give tenderness of heart and the burden for 
souls. 

What a marvelous change the coming of t&e 
Spirit wrought in those waiting disciples ! They had 
forsaken him; they had doubted his word; Peter 
had denied him. But now they all became flaming 
evangels, and "spake the word of God with bold- 
ness." 

A personal Pentecost will help the soul-winner 
to overcome timidity, give utterance and a holy 
boldness, and make effective the words he speaks. 
It is the supreme need of the Church to-day. God 
wants men and women in every vocation of life who 
are Spirit-filled; and who, by diligent study of the 
Word of God, by prayer, and by Christian testi- 
mony, live a Spirit-filled life that is perennial. 

The personal worker will succeed only when 
endued and empowered with the Holy Ghost. Dr. 



The Soul- Winner's Equipment. 77 

J. Wilbur Chapman tells of a young Irishman who 
was a member of his Church, and who had not had 
the educational advantages many young people 
have. Dr. Chapman says: 

"With a heart burdened for the men of the city, 
I called together a few of the men of the Church, 
and laying before them the plan I had in mind, told 
them first of all that we could do nothing without 
the 'infilling of the Holy Ghost/ 

"When this had been explained, I noticed this 
man leave the room. He did not return while the 
meeting was in session. When I sought him I 
found him in one of the lower rooms of the church, 
literally on his face before God. He was in prayer. 

"I shall never forget his petition: '0 God, I 
plead with thee for this blessing!' then, as if God 
were showing him what was in the way, he said, 
'My Father, I will give up every known sin, only I 
plead with thee for power;' and then, as if his in- 
dividual sins were passing before him, he said again 
and again, 'I will give them up; I will give them 



78 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

up/ Then, without any emotion, he rose from his 
knees, turned his face heavenward, and simply said, 
'And now I claim the blessing/ 

"For the first time he became sensible of my 
presence, and with a shining countenance he 
reached out his hands to clasp mine. You could 
feel the very presence of the Spirit as he said, 'I 
have received him; I have received him!' And I 
believe he had, for in the next few months he led 
more than sixty men into the kingdom of God. 
His whole life had been transformed." 



THE SOUL -WINNER'S METHODS. 

1 THAT I MAY, BY ALL MEANS, SAVE SOME." 



STUDY XXII. 
DIEECT APPEOACH. 

Memory Verse: " Jesus . . . saith unto him, Go home to 
thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord 
hath done for thee. "— (Mark v, 19.) 

Scripture for Meditation: John iv, 1-42. 

John Vassar, than whom there has been no 
more successful soul-winner for a hundred years, 
accomplished his work through personal conver- 
sation, and declared that the best method of dealing 
with souls is to strike home at once with the most 
direct and searching question possible. Without a 
word of introduction he would say, "Have you ex- 
perienced that great change called the new birth ?" 
That question could not be easily evaded. 

Study the methods of Christ in dealing with such 

as Mcodemus, the Samaritan woman, and the rich 

young man. How eagerly he used every opportu- 

81 



82 The Art of Soul-Winning. 

nity! How his questions search the life! Without 
any apology, how he thrusts home warning and 
entreaty ! 

How easily we may lose opportunity to speak 
directly to men of their danger! While the great 
Dr. Chalmers was a guest at the home of his friend, 
a Highland country gentleman, his friend died sud- 
denly. Dr. Chalmers had never spoken to him 
about his soul. He was much distressed, and said, 
"If I had only known that he was going to be taken 
from earth so soon, how earnestly I would have 
pleaded with him about his soul !" 

Dr. J. E. Carson, of New York City, said to his 
congregation one Sunday morning, that every saved 
man was either a channel through which the Spirit 
of God was reaching the unsaved, or a barrier pre- 
venting the Spirit doing his work. One of the 
trustees of the Church said to himself on the way 
home, "Am I a channel, or a barrier ?" That night 
he could not sleep, and cried out, "0 Lord, make me 
a channel !" Almost the first thought that came 



The Soul- Winner's Methods. 83 

was that there were some men in his employ to 
whom he had never spoken a word about Jesus 
Christ. He confessed his fault, and told the Lord 
that if he would make him a channel he would 
speak to these men. The first man who entered 
his office the next morning was his confidential 
clerk, who had been with him eighteen years. The 
merchant said, "Edward, have n't I been a good 
employer to you?" "Yes, sir." "Have not I 
treated you well?" "Yes, sir." "Why, sir, what 
have I done," said the clerk, "that you are going to 
discharge me?" "Edward, I am on my way to 
heaven, and I want you to go with me." Tears 
came into the eyes of both men as Edward took 
the merchant's extended hand and said, "I will, 
sir." Dr. Carson afterwards received eleven men 
into his Church because this trustee had consented 
to be a channel for the Holy Spirit. 

Dr. Manley S. Hard talked with a physician 
about his soul, and, two days after, the doctor en- 
tered the revival-meeting just before the benedic- 



84 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

tion, walked straight to the altar, and begged the 
people to wait and pray for him, saying: 

"I know it is late and you are all tired, but I 
want you to stay a little while and pray for me. 
This has been an awfully hard day. I have ridden 
fifty miles and visited more than twenty patients, 
but I am the sickest man of them all. Two sermons 
have been preached to me; a faithful one yesterday 
by my pastor; the other this morning when I had 
to tell a woman she had better get ready to die, for 
she could not live. As I drove away I said to my- 
self, 'You have warned another, but you are not 
ready yourself/ " 

To go to a man and speak to him directly and 
plainly about his responsibility to God, and warn 
him to flee from "the wrath to come," may take 
more courage than to preach to a thousand; but 
it pays, and it must be done if the dying multitudes 
are ever saved. 



STUDY XXIII. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

Memory Verse: " Ye see how large a letter I have writ- 
ten unto you with mine own hand." — (Gal. vi, 11.) 
Scripture for Meditation: Philemon. 

What a beautiful letter is that which Paul 
wrote to Philemon ! How it breathes affection, and 
sympathy, and tender entreaty ! And it was written 
by his own hand. Study this letter, and have your 
heart saturated with its spirit. You will then know 
how to write "words that touch" to your unsaved 
friends. 

There are special ocasions, such as the time of 

bereavement, of sickness, of trial, or of success, 

when this method may be employed to advantage. 

Many a soul has been won for Christ, and many a 

lonely life cheered by a sympathetic, wisely-worded 

letter, winged by prayer. 

85 



86 The Akt of Soul-Winning. 

Sitting in a public park, a young man was seen 
poring over a letter while the tears rained down 
his face, and he almost sobbed aloud. "It is from 
my mother," he said. "She wrote it herself, and 
though I ran away from home and broke her heart, 
yet she says that she still loves me, and is praying 
for me, and wants me to come home." 

Dr. T. L. Cuyler went to make his first call on 
a rich merchant. It was a cold winter evening, and 
as the door was opened when the minister was leav- 
ing, a cold, piercing gale swept in. Dr. Cuyler said, 
"What an awful night for the poor!" The mer- 
chant went back and brought a roll of bank- 
bills, saying, "Give these to the poorest people you 
know." Some days after, Dr. Cuyler wrote him, 
telling him how his bounty had relieved many poor, 
and then added, "How is it that a man so kind to 
his fellow-creatures has always been so unkind to 
his Savior as to refuse him his heart?" That sen- 
tence touched him. He sent for the minister to 
talk to him, was converted, and told Dr. Cuyler 



The Soul- Winner's Methods. 87 

that he was the first person in twenty years who 
had spoken to him about his soul. 

Do not allow letter-writing to excuse you from 
direct personal work; but watch for opportunity to 
write, as well as speak, that "by all means you may 



STUDY XXIV. 
TKACTS AND BOOKS. 

Memory Verse: "And when I looked, behold, a hand 
was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was 
therein."— (Ezek. ii, 9.) 

Scripture for Meditation: Eccl. xi, 1 ; 1 Tim. iv, 7-16. 

The influence of a tract or of a good book can 
not be estimated. Eev. J. Hudson Taylor, of the 
China Inland Mission, was converted in boyhood 
through reading a gospel tract which he found in 
his father's library. "He had been frequently 
troubled about his soul, and had again and again 
tried to become a Christian, but had failed so often 
that he had concluded that there was no use in 
trying any more." 

An agent of the American Tract Society relates 
the following: 

"A man on a canal-boat received a tract, but 

to show his contempt for the tract and its giver, 

88 



The Soul- Winner's Methods. 89 

took out his penknife and cut it up into fantastic 
shapes. Then he held it up to the derision of the 
company. 

"In tearing it apart, one of the pieces clung 
to his knee. His eyes were attracted by the only 
word on it — 'eternity.' He turned it over, and 
there was the word 'God.' 

"These ideas remained in his mind. He tried 
to laugh them off; then to drink, to play cards in 
order to banish them. But they still clung to him, 
and plagued him till he sought God and preparation 
for eternity." 

There is an old true story about a tract, that 
should be told over and over again: 

A Puritan minister named Sibbs wrote a tract 
called "The Bruised Eeed." A copy of this was 
given by a humble layman to a little boy at whose 
father's house he had been entertained over night. 
That boy was Eichard Baxter, and the book was the 
means of his conversion. Baxter wrote his "Call 
to the Unconverted/' and among the multitude led 



90 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

to Christ by it was Philip Doddridge. Doddridge 
wrote "The Eise and Progress of Eeligion in the 
Soul/' and "the time would fail to tell" its blessed 
influence. By it Wilberf orce was converted, and of 
his life and labors volumes could be written. Wil- 
berf orce wrote his "Practical View of Christianity," 
and this led not only Dr. Chalmers into the truth, 
but Legh Richmond to Christ. Richmond wrote 
"The Dairyman's Daughter," which has been pub- 
lished in a hundred languages, and many million 
copies have been sold. 

But he who would make the best use of good 
literature must be wise. How little tact some work- 
ers have! In a hospital a tract-distributor handed 
a leaflet on dancing to a poor fellow who had lost 
both limbs. Another zealous young man gave a 
tract on "The Tobacco Habit" to a beautiful cul- 
tured lady, the wife of a minister. A good supply 
of common sense is just as necessary to success in 
the use of this method as in any other. 



STUDY XXV. 

THE PEAYEK LIST. 

Memory Verse: "I will pray for you unto the Lord." — 

(1 Sam. vii, 5.) 
Scripture for Meditation: Luke xviii, 1-8. 

One of the highest privileges of the Christian 
life is the privilege of intercession for the unsaved. 
Every Christian may be an intercessor, and bear to 
the mercy-seat, in the arms of prayer, some un- 
saved friend every day. Have a prayer list. In a 
little memorandum-book write the names of those 
whom you are anxious to see saved. Spread these 
names before the Lord daily until your prayers 
are answered. 

One of the greatest Christian movements of 

modern times started with a prayer-list carried in 

the vest-pocket of a commercial traveler, Mr. E. B. 

Graves, traveling for a paper-house in New York 

91 



92 The Art or Soul- Winning. 

City. He secured permission from a merchant to 
allow his name to be entered on his prayer-list. 
The merchant wrote his name in the traveler's 
book, and then proceeded to inform Mr. Graves that 
he had determined not to be a Christian, and that 
he had taken too big a contract if he expected to 
pray him into the kingdom. But the traveler 
simply said, "I confidently expect my prayer to be 
answered." When they met again the merchant 
had been converted, and, amid tears of rejoicing, 
another name was checked off the list. The mer- 
chant's name was Samuel M. Sayford. Mr. Sayford 
became a secretary in the Young Men's Christian 
Association, and shortly after met C. K. Ober, then 
a student at Williams College, and pushed him out 
into Association work. Mr. Ober, in turn, found 
John K. Mott in Cornell University, persuaded him 
to enter Association work among students; and 
Mr. Mott, in the course of time, started on his jour- 
ney around the world, organizing the World's Chris- 
tian Student Federation. 



STUDY XXVI. 
WORK AMONG STUDENTS. 

Memory Verse: "Now then we are ambassadors for 
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we 
pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to 
God."— (2 Cor. v, 20.) 

Scripture for Meditation : 1 Cor. ii. 

No more fruitful and important field for per- 
sonal work can be found than in our educational 
institutions, and Christian students who make soul- 
winning a habit of life may win many rich trophies 
for the Master. Bishop H. W. Warren, when a 
Freshman in college, was led to an open confession 
of Christ through a Saturday morning walk with a 
Junior, who talked to him about his soul. 

Dr. J. W. Bashford, in The Christian Student, 
tells about "a Senior in the Ohio Weslevan Univer- 
sity who was smitten with conviction because he 
had neglected personal work for the Master. He 



94 The Aet of Soul- Winning. 

intended to be a minister, but had been indifferent 
to the spiritual welfare of his student friends. He 
offered himself to Christ in full consecration, and 
made a list of sixteen friends for whom he felt per- 
sonal responsibility. He engaged in systematic per- 
sonal work with these friends, and had the satis- 
faction before the year was completed of seeing 
every one of them begin the Christian life. Six of 
his sixteen friends entered the ministry, and some 
of them are even more talented and successful than 
the student friend who led them to Christ." 

As a rule, young people during their college 
years are thoughtful and easily reached; but if not 
saved before they leave the college halls and begin 
the active work of life, they are almost certainly 
lost to the kingdom. How often, because of timid- 
ity or carelessness, Christian students and teachers 
allow this precious harvest time to go by, and lose 
the opportunity to win a soul for Christ! 

A man, who is now an eminent and widely- 
known minister, says that he roomed with a young 



The Soul-Winnek ? s Methods. 95 

man at college for two years, and never said a word 
to him about his soul. When he was about to leave 
for home, his room-mate said, "Why have you not 
spoken to me about my soul?" Said the Christian 
student, "I thought you did not care for me to do 
so." The young man replied, "Why, that is the 
very reason I roomed with you, and there has never 
been a day for these two years that you could not 
have done so." 

Let Christian students set out to win some 
trophies among their friends and room-mates for 
Christ. The results of faithful personal work may 
not be immediate or apparent, but the blessed 
Spirit of God will water the seed. For thirteen 
months a college student prayed for and urged a 
fellow-student to surrender to Christ, and died 
without seeing any result of his efforts. But the 
seed was faithfully sown, and the young man was 
afterwards converted, and became Bishop Hanning- 
ton, the martyr bishop of Africa. 



STUDY XXVII. 
MEETING OBJECTIONS. 

Memory Verse: "For I will give you a mouth and wis- 
dom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to 
gainsay nor resist." — (Luke xxi, 15.) 

Scripture for Meditation : John ix, 1-41. 

The zealous personal worker will be met by 
objections; but it must be remembered that these 
objections are often given for the sake of argument, 
and often for the sake of something to say. They 
should be squarely met, however, and answered; 
and the best way to answer such is by Scripture. 
There is not an objection advanced by the uncon- 
verted that can not be met and overcome by some 
passage of Scripture. Just as Jesus in the wilder- 
ness met the tempter's arguments with "It is writ- 
ten/' so we may meet every argument of the ob- 
jector with the Word. 

96 



The Soul-Wixxer's Methods. 97 

A faithful study of Christ's conversations with 
seeking souls, such as Nieodemus and the rich 
young man, will also be helpful. 

Below are some of the objections usually given, 
with the Scripture references that may be used to 
meet them. This arrangement of texts is taken 
from "Personal Work," by S. M. Sayford, by con- 
sent of the publishers: 

"I am good enough." (Gen. vi, 5; Ps. li, 5-7; 
Luke xviii, 19.) 

"I am as good as most Christians." (Eom. xiv, 
10-12; 2 Cor. v, 10: Eev. xx, 11; xii, 15.) 

"I have never done anything really bad." (Luke 
xvi, 15; James ii, 10.) 

"I can not give up my pleasures." (Eccl. ii, 1; 
xi, 9; Ps. xvi, 11.) 

"I know I shall fail." (John vi, 37; 2 Tim. i, 12; 
iv, 18.) 

"I can not now, but will some time." (Luke 
xiv, 17; Acts xxiv, 25; James iv, 13, 14; Luke xii, 
19. 20.) 



98 The Aet of Soul-Winning. 

"I am too great a sinner/' (Luke v, 32 ; xix, 10 ; 

1 Tim. i, 15.) 

"My day of grace has past." (Ex. xxxiv, 5-7; 

2 Chron. xxx, 9; Isa. lv, 7.) 

"I do not feel concerned/ 5 (Eom. xiii, 11; Eph. 
v, 14; Heb. ii, 3.) 

"I can not know that these things are true." 
(Acts xvii, 11; John v, 39; vii, 17.) 

"It will cost me my living." (Matt, vi, 33; Ps. 
lxxxiv, 11; Eom. xiv, 8.) 

"It will prevent my becoming rich." (1 Tim. 
vi, 9, 10; Mark viii, 36, 37; Eev. iii, 17, 18.) 

"I can not hold my friends." (Matt, x, 37; 
xxii, 37; Phil, iii, 8.) 

"How may I know that Christ is the Son of 
God?" (John xx, 30, 31; x, 23-25; 1 John v, 13, 
20; Mark iv, 11.) 

"How may I know that the Bible is true?" 
(John vii, 17.) 

"Will not God save me if I do my best?" (Eph. 
ii, 9; Titus iii, 5-8.) 



The Soul- Winner's Methods. 99 

"Why must a man believe in Christ to be 
saved?" (John xiv, 6; Acts iv, 12; Gal. ii, 16; 
Eom. iii, 23, 26.) 

"How may I know I am forgiven?" (Ps. xxxii, 
5 ; Prov. xxviii, 13 ; 1 John i, 7-9.) 



LeFC. 



STUDY XXVIII. 
NO EFFOET IN" VAIN. 

Memory Verse: " So shall my word be that goeth forth 
out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, 
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it 
shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." — (Isa. 
lv, 11.) 

Scripture for Meditation : John iv, 36 ; 1 Cor. xv, 58. 

"Some day I hope you will preach the gospel/' 
said an aged minister to a little boy in England. 
That boy became Charles H. Spurgeon. That great 
soul-winner,, Mark Guy Pearse, says that when he 
was a boy his father took him to see a saintly old 
lady, who laid her hand upon his head, saying, 
"God bless the boy, and make him a minister." 
Mr. Pearse says that, through this aged woman, 
God called him to the ministry. 

In a college chapel in Pennsylvania a Christian 

layman sat down beside a boy and talked to him 

100 



The Soul-Winner's Methods. 101 

about Christ. That boy became Alfred Cooknian, 
whose name will be held in everlasting remem- 
brance. 

An eminent lawyer of Minneapolis, converted 
a short time since, declares that the earnest ques- 
tion, "Have you found Jesus ?" spoken by a young 
lady to his friend who sat by his side in a revival- 
meeting, and her startled look, when she was an- 
swered roughly, followed him for fifteen years until 
he was finally converted. 

Xo sincere effort for Christ can fail. To human 
eyes there may be little encouragement, but his 
Word shall prevail. Every invitation and entreaty 
shall in the end be, to those who reject it, the 
"savor of death unto death/' but to those who 
accept it, "the savor of life unto life/ 5 We may 
go forth now, weeping, bearing precious seed; but 
some blessed day we shall doubtless come again with 
rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us. 

Perhaps we are too anxious to see results now. 
We do like to number the converts, and add to the 



102 The Art of Soul- Winning. 

Church roll. Far better do our best for Christ and 
souls, then leave the results to God. He will see 
that the seed, faithfully planted, is watered, and 
that no effort is in vain. 



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